大连: Fun at the Pier

Dalian, being a coastal city, has a lot of fun places to hang out along the water. One such place was Sun Asia Ocean World, a sea park that ran along what seemed to be some kind of carnival dock.

I'll be honest, compared to its American equivalent, the park was a bit grimy and lackluster, even in a city as shiny and clean as Dalian. But as one could easily guess, and one has definitely read in my blog, there is a large difference between Chinese and American standards of quality.

The park wasn't a park in the typical sense of the word. It didn't have closed boundaries and didn't appear to be maintained. Rather, it was a pair of warehouse-like structures set about 100 yards apart from each other alongside the dock. One warehouse held "Coral World" and "Sea World," while the other held "Polar World." Now, Coral & Sea world were actually mostly well-done. Their exhibits were aesthetically pleasing and some were actually quite creative. What disappointed (and also upset) me was that some of the animal enclosures were ridiculously small, especially considering the number and size of animals they housed. For example, about eight sea turtles, most of which were about two feet in length, shared a small, shallow pool of water. They could barely swim without bumping into each other. What's more, there were no barriers around the water, so people went up to the water's edge and pulled on the turtles' shells and fins as they swam by, pushing and pulling the animals into each other. I didn't know what to do to make them stop, and no park official was coming around to make them stop, even though the official was standing right by the enclosure.

What was ironic was that in the area just on the other side of the wall, there was a giant aquarium that had sharks, large stingrays and lots of sea turtles that had plenty of room to stretch their fins. I guess it's just luck of the draw for living space. Unfortunately, even though the larger sea turtles had lots of room to themselves, the small, dinner-plate-sized sea turtles were not so lucky. They, along with a large collection of big horseshoe crabs, were dispersed into three shallow pools, the kind that kids can crowd around to look and reach into. And reach they did. Most of the children, and many of the parents, were pulling the animals completely out of the water, sometimes only by their fin. I was getting increasingly upset, and barely restrained myself from going over to different people and making them put the poor animals down. Again, there was no supervision, and only a small typed sign taped to the side of the pool saying, "Don't lift the animals out of the water." Not so effective.

Then came strike three: Polar World. As you might be able to tell by now, I have a bleeding heart when it comes to animals and their living environments. So when I entered Polar World, the other warehouse-like building, I was apprehensive. The "world" had been constructed like an Arctic research station. There were some high points for sure, like seeing an Omaha newspaper framed on the wall for some "authenticity," and seeing the cutest penguin exhibit ever! Seriously. One one side of the glass, there was the typical swimming area where one could watch penguins zoom back and forth. On the other two sides, though, the glass was rimmed with small divided crates... where the penguins had built their pebble nests! I got to watch the penguins squabble over rocks and tend to their mates, using their beaks to move pebbles into the perfect position for their nests. We also saw the penguins cozying up over their eggs and pecking protectively at other penguins that got too close. One male in particular was hilarious. He had just deposited a rock in his mate's nest and went off in search of yet another one. Poor thing kept checking out the few unclaimed rocks littering the ground, but I guess they were unclaimed for a reason as he rejected them all. Thus, he bravely went on a quest to pilfer a rock from another penguin's nest. First, he tried the sneak approach, waddling up behind a penguin to snatch a rock from behind her. She caught him, though, and called him out. Then she pecked away at him as he shuffled by over to the next nest. He thrust his beak down into this new nest, but was parried by the mother penguin standing guard. He kept going. I unfortunately didn't get to see the end of this tale, as I had to make the sea lion/walrus show, but I hope the poor penguin finally pilfered his pebble.

Anyway, the penguins were definitely the highlight. The other animals, the Arctic wolves and foxes, the seals, and the gigantic polar bear were all very tightly contained, and the polar bear, at least, very obviously wanted to be let out. He was constantly pacing the few steps he could and was foaming at the mouth. I don't blame him; many of the Chinese tourists were banging their hands against the glass, trying to goad him, I'm sure. I hope, I sincerely hope, that there was more to the enclosure than what I saw, but it really didn't look like it, and the warehouse really didn't have room for it. That was an unfortunate downer.

What do we do when this blog hits a downer? Obviously we go pay 20 kuai to defy gravity for a few short seconds at a time. Or at least, that's what I did. Remember how I said this place was like a carnival dock? It came complete with bumper cars, a small ferris wheel, and this: